Chapter 28: "Hunger"

Falling, being tossed, falling again, and repeating this process endlessly in a state of extreme cold and emptiness. His mind was stirred into a chaotic mess; disjointed perceptions pierced his consciousness like sharp blades. It was only when his awareness had almost completely flickered out that a sudden sense of release—like escaping the brink of drowning—finally swept over him, jolting Yu Sheng awake from that infinite, cold, and dark descent.

He bolted upright in bed, only to lose his balance and nearly tumble to the floor. At the last second, he gripped the corner of the nightstand, bracing himself as his head spun with vertigo.

A sharp, persistent throbbing made him wonder if his brain was literally boiling.

Fortunately, this sensation did not last long. Once he was truly awake, those unbearable feelings faded away like the remnants of a dream, leaving behind only a lingering, unpleasant impression.

Yu Sheng sat on the edge of the bed, catching his breath. He looked toward the window and saw the sunset gradually approaching the rooftops of the distant city, the sky darkening bit by bit.

"…A whole day has passed…" he muttered in surprise. He pushed himself up using the nightstand, stumbled to the table to chug a glass of water, and then patted his face, struggling to shake off the grogginess of that restless sleep before heading downstairs.

"I honestly didn't think this 'abrupt awakening' would be this miserable," he complained to the oil painting on the dining table the moment he entered the room. "I thought it would just be a bit of dizziness or a racing heart. Good grief, I nearly puked up last year's New Year's Eve dinner the moment I opened my eyes…"

He finished his complaint, but Irene did not respond with her usual string of electronic beeps. Instead, she was unnervingly quiet. Sensing something was wrong, Yu Sheng turned toward the painting and saw Irene slumped in her red-velvet-cushioned chair like a malfunctioning machine. She was clutching her teddy bear, staring blankly upward, her eyeballs occasionally twitching before she would heave in a dry retch.

Yu Sheng: "…How did you manage to get yourself in such a state from this 'abrupt awakening'?"

Irene looked up at him, but just as she was about to speak, another wave of nausea hit her. Being a doll who had been sealed away for who knows how many years, she didn't have a New Year's dinner—or even stomach acid (in fact, Yu Sheng suspected she didn't even have a stomach). She could only collapse against the side of the chair, retching so violently it seemed as if her head might shake right off.

After a long while, the poor doll finally recovered. She looked at Yu Sheng, her voice sounding like a dying gasp: "I wasn't the one who 'woke' us up. You were."

Yu Sheng: "…Huh?"

"Your final shout scared that fox awake! I didn't even have time to react!" Irene said, filled with indignation. "Why did you have to yell so loudly!"

Yu Sheng was dazed for a moment, but he eventually grasped what she meant. He scratched his hair, feeling a bit awkward: "I didn't know! I just wanted to warn Hu Li because her state felt dangerous."

"Well, your intuition was spot on," Irene said, then "urged" again, collapsing against the chair side to dry-heave before she could catch her breath. She glared at Yu Sheng. "Fine, the good news is that you managed to wake her up before she sank any deeper. Even though she 'ejected' both of us when she came to, she should be able to stay conscious for a while now."

Yu Sheng walked over, pulled out a chair, and sat across from Irene, his expression growing serious: "And the bad news?"

Irene didn't speak for a moment. After a few seconds of silence, she nodded gently: "You probably already guessed—she won't last long."

Yu Sheng frowned, saying nothing.

Yes, he had felt it. He had felt it while trapped in that valley: the hunger and madness buried deep in Hu Li's heart, growing like some kind of parasitic malignancy. Even though he didn't know what it was at first, during his final confrontation with that flesh-monster, he had realized that this "hunger" was not as simple as it appeared.

And the scene he had witnessed in the depths of the dream only gave him a more accurate grasp of Hu Li's situation.

"If you want to help that fox, you had better act as soon as possible," Irene said. "The thing enticing her is trying to turn her into some kind of… 'sustenance.' Killing isn't its goal; the 'madness within the hunger' is what it wants. It’s incredible that her willpower has held out this long, but the longer she persists, the greater the 'nutrients' she will provide when the 'transformation' finally occurs. Things will get very, very complicated."

Yu Sheng listened with a stony face, mentally supplementing the situation with everything he had learned so far. Suddenly, he noticed something and looked up at the frame.

"Irene," he said solemnly, "do you… know something? About the situation in that valley, and the thing inside it?"

Irene hesitated. She shook her head first, but then nodded slightly.

"I don't remember most of it, including how that valley came to be. But the situation that fox encountered… I seem to have some impression of it. I must have seen records about this before."

She frowned, pausing briefly as if struggling to sift through her fragmented, intermittent memories.

"…Entity-Hunger. That seems to be its name," Irene said, piecing it together. "It is a highly dangerous entity with clear, malicious intent. It originates in quarantined zones where the environment is toxic and hunger spreads. The entity itself is highly aggressive, but what’s more dangerous is its 'influence.' Those targeted by this entity fall into a terrible, ravenous hunger, and their willpower is put to a severe test. I can't remember the specific victim cases, but my impression is… it's very dangerous. It has harmed many people, and what's worse is…"

Irene stopped and looked into Yu Sheng's eyes.

"Hunger turns people into beasts, devouring both dignity and life. Most people cannot withstand it. Those who fall become part of Entity-Hunger, forever and ever."

Listening to Irene, Yu Sheng's expression tightened, a heavy sense of oppression weighing on his heart. Just then, another thought hit him—

That impulse to eat he had felt while fighting the flesh-monster!

Had he already been influenced by the "hunger"?!

His heart tightened, and he quickly asked, "Wait, what are the primary 'symptoms' after being influenced by the 'hunger'?"

Irene gave him a strange look: "…Why, 'hunger,' of course."

"That’s not what I mean, I’m saying…" Yu Sheng waved his hand, struggling to find the right words. "For example, when I saw that monster, I really wanted to take a bite. I even thought it tasted pretty good. I even cooked a couple of dishes with it when I got back. Could that reaction also be an influence of the 'hunger'?"

Irene's expression went visibly blank. She immediately thought of the "local specialties" Yu Sheng had brought back, and the four dishes and one soup that looked, smelled, and tasted perfect.

"Right, right, you did eat it…" the doll muttered, but then she suddenly snapped out of it, her tone shifting. "No! That's obviously not it! The influence of 'Entity-Hunger' is to make you go mad with hunger so you chew on others, not so you chew on *it*! It doesn't entice people into madness by using itself as bait!"

Irene's exclamation startled Yu Sheng, but he immediately realized the logic—while hunger and appetite are closely related, when dealing with "Otherworlds" and "Entities" based on strict rules, these were two distinct definitions. Especially when an entity possessed active malice, its influence must operate strictly according to its rules.

To put it plainly, if Yu Sheng had been influenced by the "hunger" while in that valley, he should have been trying to chew on Hu Li—not the monster that served as the source of the enticement.

Of course, he had been somewhat reluctant when he first bit that monster, but that was beside the point.

Thinking of this, Yu Sheng let out a sigh of relief, confirming he hadn't been corrupted by that bizarre entity. He also recalled that he had felt a normal sense of satiety after eating before bed, which eased his mind considerably. He exhaled deeply: "That's good. It seems I’m still quite normal."

Irene stared at him after hearing this and muttered: "No, I think the fact that you could develop an appetite for that thing in the first place is already abnormal…"

Yu Sheng waved his hand dismissively and changed the subject: "So, that monster that looked very abstract but tasted pretty good is 'Entity-Hunger,' right? Killing it should free Hu Li from the influence—I know entities can't be completely killed, I mean killing it temporarily."

"Actually… I'm not sure," Irene answered hesitatingly. "'Hunger' is a rather special entity. The monster you saw is its 'manifestation,' but as I understand it, the true 'Hunger' permeates the entire valley. Do you understand what I mean? What you saw were merely 'tentacles' it sent out to feed and scout. Its true body… just like its name, is the hunger that is everywhere in that valley."

Yu Sheng listened, his expression slowly growing blank.

Yes, he understood.

"Damn it, a Rule-type?!"